Bill requiring schools to teach Native American history heads to Senate
floor
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[April 20, 2023]
By NIKA SCHOONOVER
Capitol News Illinois
nschoonover@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Lawmakers advanced a measure that would require public
elementary and high schools to include a unit of Native American history
in their social studies curriculum, beginning with the 2024-2025 school
year.
House Bill 1633 passed out of a Senate committee this week with a 10-3
vote after passing the House 75-32 last month. It now heads to the full
Senate for consideration before it can head to Gov. JB Pritzker.
The measure also requires the State Education Equity Committee, which
provides recommendations for advancing equity in education, include a
representative from an organization that works for “economic,
educational, and social progress for Native Americans.”
According to Andrew Johnson, executive director of the Native American
Chamber of Commerce of Illinois, the lack of Native American
representation on the committee was a “serious oversight” that didn’t
reflect the state’s diversity.
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“This is one of the many examples where the lack of proper education has
deprived our citizens of discovering the full extent of the complexity,
interrelations and impact of the people who originally inhabited this
land and who continue to live here today,” Johnson said in committee.
While the legislation does not actually create curriculum for the
history course, it does specify the unit should include Native American
contributions in “government and the arts, humanities, and sciences, as
well as the contributions of Native Americans to the economic, cultural,
social, and political development of their own nations and of the United
States.”
The bill also requires the unit of instruction to include descriptions
of large urban Native American populations in Illinois and, for grades 6
through 12, a section on the genocide of and discrimination against
Native Americans.
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![](../images/042023PIX/news_b76.jpg)
Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton is pictured on
the floor of the Illinois Senate. (Capitol News Illinois photo by
Jerry Nowicki)
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While the Illinois State Board of Education would provide instructional
materials and guidelines for the development of the curriculum, each
school district would be required to develop it on their own.
Additionally, each school board will have to determine the minimum
amount of time that qualifies as a unit of instruction.
It was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton, who said in
committee that teaching the subject matter has been “overlooked for far
too long.”
Joseph Rupnick, chairman for Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, said in
committee that Native Americans experience higher suicide rates because
of cultural disconnection, alienation and pressure to assimilate. He
added the inclusion of their history in school curriculum may help them
feel further connected to their community and history.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
U.S. suicide rate increased 33 percent from 1999 to 2017. Over the same
period, the suicide rate for American Indian or Alaska Native women
increased by 139 percent and 71 percent for men.
“Integrating Native history in our education system will help
discriminatory myths about Native Americans in an inclusive environment
free of caricatures of our families, parodies of our tradition and words
that diminish our worth,” Rupnick said.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news
service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of
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the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation,
along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation
and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
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